Kaduna born Manchester United Nigerian defender Teden Mengi made attempts to train with the senior national team of Nigeria but was turned down by the coaches, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Mengi has emerged as one of the most talked about young defenders at Manchester United following his rise to the U23 where he has established himself as first choice at the age of 17. He has also caught the eyes of first team boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Solskjaer has promoted him to the first team and even named him on the bench for the dead rubber Europa League game against Astana which they lost 2-1 yesterday. Mengi didn’t get to play but many believe he is very close to making his debut for the first team.
Already a youth international for England, he could easily have represented Nigeria if the Nigerian team of 2017 accepted to have him train when his uncle approached the technical crew to give him a chance.
” I personally spoke with two of the coaches in the team back then in 2017 about Mengi. They were not keen on him and said it’s the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) that has the power to call a foreign base player to the U17 team. One year later he played for England at same level”, he told Owngoalnigeria.com on the condition of anonymity.
” We wanted him to start building a connection with Nigeria but unfortunately that didn’t happen as expected. For now the young man will focus on his career at Manchester United and continue to represent England. When it’s time for senior international football he will decide on the team he wants”.
